ON THE MOVE: World Book Fair New Delhi

The Royal Danish Embassy in New Delhi will participate in World Book Fair in New Delhi, taking place from the 6th to the 14th of January 2018. The EU will take part in the fair as Guest of Honour and Denmark will thus participate with a Danish stall as part of the EU pavilion, in order to showcase Danish literature to an Indian audience.

The Fair started in 1972 and is the largest book fair in Asia. With a footfall of 1.4 million visitors in 2017, the fair presents an excellent opportunity to have Indian and Danish representatives from the publishing industry meet over literature.

For this reason, the Royal Danish Embassy has invited the Danish author, Mr. Palle Michael Schmidt, to participate in the fair in order to represent Danish literature at the Danish stall.

The Royal Danish Embassy has sponsored Mr. Schmidt’s accommodation during the fair. He will arrive in India on the 6th of January 2018 and depart from India on the 9th of January 2018.

This all came together at the last minute so I didn’t have a chance to prepare much. Let’s just say the last week before Christmas was pretty hectic, moving deadlines for my work, emailing back and forth with the Danish Embassy in New Delhi, getting travel visas for me and my wife, booking tickets, getting current works translated and samples printed, preparing prints for the booth, getting my US publishers to ship copies of both Thomas Alsop and The Devil’s Concubine. All the while juggling three time zones; Denmark, San Diego & Los Angeles and New Delhi, India. Oh, and I was in Paris over the Holidays so I just had one night in my own bed before we were off again…

I have four different talks / presentations / panels to take part in at the book fair, most of them repeating on different days. Here’s how the activities are described in the program:

Noah’s Ark II – a children’s book: Most people know the biblical story of Noah and his ark, and how he saved a bunch of animals from a huge flood. However, not many people know the story of what happened to the other animals that were unexpectedly left behind in the stormy weather.

Palle is the illustrator of this story of funny animals and he will read aloud from the book (in English). He will also help the audience draw their own freaky animals.

Comics for beginners – a crash course in making comics: Are you just starting out making comics? In doubt what tools to use, or the format and work processes involved in making comics? It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the possibilites of storytelling in comics form, but if you break it down, it’s entirely possible – for everyone!

Palle is the founder and tutor of comicsforbeginners.com where he teaches comics in written and tutorial form. At WBF you have a chance to experience him live in this ultra-short comics workshop.

Succeeding as a freelance writer/illustrator: Based on his own experiences, Palle Schmidt, a successful Danish author and illustrator of comics, guides the audience on how to make art for a living and become a successful writer and artist.

International Marketing for children’s books and their authors: The Experience with foreign markets and rights sales. Panel discussion with Senja Požar (Slovenia), rights manager at Mladinska knjiga publishing house), Palle Schmidt (Denmark),an internationally renowned author and illustrator of children’s comics and Manica Musil (Slovenia), children’s book author with successful translations on the Asian markets. Moderated by Renata Zamida, director of the Slovenian Book Agency

Here is my full program for the festival, for the off chance you might be swinging by (and as a backup for myself, if I lose my printed version):

I’m sure New Delhi will be a relentless attack on the senses and a head-spinning experience. My wife, Line Leonhardt, who is the author of Noah’s Ark II will be coming with me on third trip, so hopefully she’ll be able to take a lot of pictures. I probably won’t have time to write updates during the event but I will do a follow-up when I’m back in Copenhagen sometime.

I’ve decided to merge my .dk and .com blogs so I only have one place to maintain. So from now on it’s going to be a mix of English and Danish posts. Like on my social media, I post in Danish if it’s news only relevant to Danes. Just skip the posts you don’t understand and enjoy the rest.